1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computerized systems that control fixtures, appliances and equipment that consume a utility, such as electricity, natural gas, oil and/or water. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems that monitor the use of utilities so that fixtures, appliances, and equipment can be operated in the most cost efficient manner.
2. Prior Art Description
In the industrialized countries of the world, most every building, both residential and commercial, makes use of utilities. The utilities most commonly supplied to buildings include electrical power, water, natural gas, and/or heating oil.
The price of all utilities has been rapidly increasing. It is therefore prudent for any building owner to use all utilities as efficiently as possible. However, the efficient use of many utilities is often hampered by the limited ability a building owner has to control utilities in response to changing conditions. For example, many homes have heat provided by a natural gas furnace. The operation of the furnace is controlled by a variety of thermostats used at strategic points within the house. When a thermostat detects a temperature below a preset value, the furnace turns on and remains on until the thermostat registers a temperature above the preset value. Accordingly, if most of a house is warm and a single zone is cold, due to a partially open window for example, the furnace starts and unnecessarily consumes natural gas.
As another example, consider a school with a gymnasium containing large electric lights. The school has the lights on a timer that light the lights during school hours. However, on a few bright sunny days, the use of the lights is unnecessary. On such days, the lights are unnecessarily turned on and energy is wasted.
Some thermostats and lighting controls are programmable in that they can turn the heat and lights on and off at different times of the day. However, the presets of such controls are manually set and then often forgotten. Furnaces, lights and most all other such equipment can be run far more efficiently if their controls were constantly updated with current conditions, such as zone temperatures, rates of change for various zone temperatures, weather conditions, ambient light levels, time of day, and day of the year. The use of a constantly updated control system can also create large efficiency improvements for many other fixtures, appliances and equipment that consume a utility.
In the prior art, there are many timers and programmable thermostats that are used to turn on and off electrical lights, heating furnaces, lawn sprinklers and the like. These controls are manually programmed. The controls are not updated unless a person manually resets the control. Controls that can be updated in an ongoing manner by a computer have only recently been developed. Companies such as SmartLabs, Inc. of San Diego, Calif. have developed interactive thermostats, electrical wall plugs and electrical light switches for homes that can be controlled via a computer within that home. The computer communicates with the various controls using either a short-range wireless transmission or a signal transmitted through the wiring of the home. In this manner, a person can program the computer to turn on and off lights, heat, sprinklers, and other such devices at different times. However, although the ability to control various fixtures and appliances by computer does exist, no system in the prior uses any form of programming intelligence to operate the various fixtures and appliances in a manner that would optimize cost efficiencies.
A need therefore exists for a system and method of applying computerized analysis to the controls of fixtures, appliances and equipment that consume utilities, so that these elements can be run in a highly cost efficient manner even as conditions and other variables continuously change. This need is met by the present invention as described and claimed below.